A Day at Hogsmeade
by Romione4Life
Summary: Lily Evans convinces Dorcas Meadowes to come to Hogsmeade. Dorcas is reluctant to go, but she may discover that she and Lily have more in common than she originally thought.


**Author's Note: This was written for round 5 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. My task was to write a story about Dorcas Meadowes' first trip to Hogsmeade.**

**Disclaimer: I must not tell lies! I'm not J.K. Rowling, and I do not own any part of Harry Potter.**

* * *

The talking and laughing of students filled the halls of Hogwarts, but Dorcas Meadowes attempted to tune them out and concentrate on her work. She sat in the library hunched over her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook and a piece of parchment, her quill in her hand.

"There you are!" A voice much closer than the ones in the corridors startled Dorcas. She looked up to see Lily Evans standing by her table.

"I thought I'd find you in here," Lily went on. "Aren't you coming?"

Dorcas sighed. "I don't know. I was kind of hoping to get some homework done."

"But it's our first Hogsmeade weekend!" Lily said. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Did you not get your form signed? I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have assumed —"

"No, I got it signed," Dorcas said quickly. "I just have a lot to get done."

"Knowing you, you've been in the library all day. You can afford to take a break." When Dorcas hesitated, Lily began tugging on her arm. "Come on! If you fail our next Defense Against the Dark Arts exam, I'll never drag you to Hogsmeade again."

"Okay," Dorcas gave in. "Let me go back to my dormitory to get my cloak."

Lily brightened instantly. "I'll be waiting for you."

Dorcas took her time returning her books to the dormitory and putting on her cloak. Truth be told, it wasn't her homework that concerned her. She was just about caught up on all her classes. It was simply that she rarely went out for fun. During her first two years of Hogwarts, she hadn't really had any friends; she and Lily only got to know each other through being partners in Potions.

_You can't stay inside and hide forever, _she told herself. _Think positive. _

She took a deep breath as she put on her cloak, picked up some money, and left the dormitory.

* * *

"See what a nice day it is?" Lily said once they'd gotten outside. "I knew you wouldn't regret coming out here."

Dorcas smiled slightly in spite of herself. "What do you want me to do? Admit that you were right?"

"No — well, yeah. But I want you to enjoy yourself too," Lily answered.

Dorcas' smile widened. She was just about to ask where they should visit first when she heard a male voice call out, "Hey, look!"

"Uh-oh," Lily muttered. "I was hoping we wouldn't run into them today. Just ignore them and keep walking."

Slightly puzzled, Dorcas tried to comply with Lily's instructions, but the boy kept going. "It's Lily Evans with the _Dork-_as!"

Angry and exasperated, Lily whipped around, her green eyes flashing. Dorcas blinked rapidly to make sure the tears that sprang up didn't spill over and then turned around as well.

She was met with a gaggle of boys in their year: James Potter, who was stifling a laugh; Sirius Black, who was smirking; Peter Pettigrew, who was snickering; and Remus Lupin, who had buried his face in his hands with apparent embarrassment (though he could've been hiding his amusement for all Dorcas knew).

"Very funny, James," Lily snapped.

"He said it, not me!" James protested, gesturing to Sirius.

"I knew you all were immature, but I never guessed you were this pathetic," Lily said.

The boys looked somewhat abashed, but Lily, looking over and seeing Dorcas' hurt expression, wasn't satisfied. She put one hand on her hip and wrapped the other around Dorcas' arm. "Don't you have anything to say?"

"Sorry, Evans," James and Sirius said.

"To _Dorcas, _idiots," Lily said.

"Sorry, Dorcas," the two boys chorused obediently.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Thank you. Now leave us alone."

James winked at Lily before he and the others scampered off. Lily glared at them until they were out of sight, then turned to Dorcas. "Are you all right?" she asked.

Dorcas shook her head. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come to Hogsmeade after all."

"I'm sorry about them," Lily said with a wince. "I should've warned you about them. But don't let them get to you."

"Are they always that mean?" Dorcas wanted to know.

"Oh, yeah. James claims that he's trying to impress me, but we obviously have very different ideas about how to impress people because so far I've only been amazed by his ever-increasing level of stupidity. He teases my friend Severus all the time," Lily said.

Dorcas nodded. "Thanks for defending me, Lily," she said, beginning to feel better.

"Anytime," Lily replied. "Now, how about I treat you to a butterbeer? It's supposed to be incredible."

* * *

A little while later, Dorcas and Lily were seated in the Three Broomsticks with frothing mugs of butterbeer. They both took sips and sighed contently at the same time, causing them to giggle.

"So where is Severus, anyway?" Dorcas asked, trying to make conversation.

"He told me that he didn't get his form signed. I suspected that he may have been lying, but he wouldn't show it to me to prove it." Lily shrugged. "It doesn't matter, though, because it means I get to spend time with you instead!"

"That's odd. I thought for sure he'd want to come with you," Dorcas commented.

"To tell you the truth, I don't mind that much. There's something about Sev that's been bothering me lately."

Dorcas cleared her throat uncomfortably. This wasn't what she was expecting from their discussion. "I – I'm not sure I'm the best person to be giving advice about friends," she said.

"Oh," Lily said, looking disappointed. "That's okay. I understand."

Dorcas shifted awkwardly as she took another gulp of her butterbeer. She didn't exactly see why Lily wanted to talk to _her_ about this sort of thing anyway. Surely she had other friends to confide in!

And then, all of a sudden, it clicked. Maybe she didn't have anyone else. Aside from Severus, Dorcas had never seen Lily spend a substantial amount of time with any other students.

Perhaps Lily was just as alone as Dorcas often felt.

"Wait, Lily," Dorcas spoke up. "I might not be that great at giving advice, but I'd be willing to listen if you want."

Lily smiled slightly, but it quickly vanished. "I'm just worried about Severus. Ever since we came to Hogwarts, he's seemed so interested in the Dark Arts. He knows so many curses and dark spells, and he hangs around some pretty suspicious Slytherins. At first I thought maybe he was going through a phase or trying to fit in with his house or something, but now I'm not so sure."

"You're not under any obligations to him, you know. If you don't like what he's doing, then you have every right to walk away," Dorcas said. "You don't owe him anything."

"That's the thing. I feel like I do owe him something. He helped me understand my magical abilities and made me comfortable with the wizarding world. He was my first friend here, and I don't know if I can ignore that," Lily explained.

Dorcas frowned. "That doesn't make sense. I mean, that's a pretty big change to go through in such a short period. It sounds like he's trying to figure out what he wants. I'd say you should give him some time to decide. And if he chooses to stay involved with the Dark Arts, well, that's some serious stuff and I wouldn't blame you for staying out of it."

Lily pondered Dorcas' words for a moment, staring off into space. "You're right," she said. "If Sev really cares about me, he'll stop getting mixed up in the Dark Arts. I'll just have to wait and see what he does." She looked back at Dorcas and couldn't help chuckling. "I guess we're both having rough days. What do you say we stop by Honeydukes and then head back to the castle?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Dorcas agreed. "Let's go!"

* * *

After draining the rest of their butterbeer, Dorcas and Lily went and passed some time in Honeydukes before starting back to the castle. Their moods were now considerably lighter, as opposed to their pockets, which were bulging with sweets.

"You should've seen your face when you caught sight of the blood lollipops," Dorcas laughed as she munched on a piece of chocolate.

"I bet it was nothing compared to _your _face when we saw the Cockroach Clusters," Lily retorted.

"Hey, at least vampires and the like might eat blood lollipops. Who in the world wants a _Cockroach Cluster_?" Dorcas said, wrinkling her nose.

Lily laughed, but then sobered abruptly. "Thank you, Dorcas," she said.

"For what?" Dorcas said in bewilderment.

"You helped me today more than you thought you could. I'm so glad you came along," Lily said.

"What are friends for?" Dorcas said. She froze for a second, wondering if friendship was too much to assume at that point, but Lily merely linked their arms together and beamed.

"I couldn't ask for a better friend than you."


End file.
